Ex-radio reporter found guilty of killing wife

WOBURN, Mass. (AP)  A former Missouri radio reporter was convicted Wednesday of killing his wife by poisoning her Gatorade with antifreeze and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

A Middlesex Superior Court jury deliberated for less than two days before convicting James Keown of first-degree murder in the death of his 31-year-old wife, Julie, who died of a lethal dose of ethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze.

Prosecutors said Keown slowly poisoned his wife over several months and gave her a fatal dose on Sept. 4, 2004, because he was deeply in debt and wanted to cash in her $250,000 life insurance policy. Julie Keown slipped into a coma and died four days later.

Keown's lawyer, Matthew Feinberg, told the jury Julie Keown could have committed suicide or accidentally ingested the chemical. No antifreeze was found in the Keowns' home.